One of the leading causes of fire in the United States is electrical appliances, and particularly electrical stoves and ranges. While smoke detectors are useful in providing a warning signal after a smoke creating event or a fire has started, they do nothing to minimize the damage caused by the fire. Because appliances can both cause fires and exacerbate existing fires, it is desirable to cut off power to appliances in the smoking stage before a fire begins, or promptly after the fire has commenced. Cutting power to these appliances can potentially reduce the damage caused by smoke and fire, and can conceivably prevent some fires. Appliances such as electrical stoves, ranges, toasters, toaster ovens, electrical griddles and the like, have been known to cause fires. In many cases, a significant amount of smoke is produced before flames appear.
Smoke detectors sense smoke, regardless of whether there are flames present. Fire crews are often called to a “fire” when a fire has not actually started. For example, many times people will leave an item on a stove and forget that the stove has been left on. The item left on the stove will often emit smoke for a prolonged period of time before flames appear which could cause further damage. When firefighters arrive at the home in response to a call from a neighbor or an activated smoke alarm, the firemen often do not know if a fire has actually started unless flames are visible. In many instances, the firemen will force entry by breaking down a door or going through a window only to later find that something has been left on the stove and is smoking, but that no fire has actually started. This can result in hundreds of dollars in needless damage. It can also waste fire crew's time responding to alarms from incidences which could be prevented and diverts them from more serious emergencies. If the power had been interrupted to the appliance, the smoking would have eventually stopped and the response from the firefighters conceivably could have been prevented.
Some patents disclose devices for interrupting power to appliances in the event of a fire, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,568, U.S. Pat. No. 6,130,412, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,909. It is believed that none of the above patents, either taken singly or in combination, have the advantages of the present invention as claimed.
Thus there is a need for an improved device and method which can remove the power from appliances and the like in response to a smoke detector signal to thereby prevent loss of life, prevent property damage from smoke, fire, or other damages incurred in such instances, and to allow firefighters the opportunity to respond to other emergencies. It is further desired that such device and method be simple and easy to install, and include additional safety features for fire prevention and minimization of damages.